


Dads Against Daughters Dating

by distant_rose



Series: Little Pirates [12]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Bisexual Beth Jones, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Future Fic, Protective Dad Killian, daddy killian, in which Killian doesn't care who dates his daughter no one is good enough, supportive parents, the most casual and nonchalant way a child can tell their parents about their sexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 03:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11394495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distant_rose/pseuds/distant_rose
Summary: Killian and Emma's daughter Beth Jones has been going on a lot of dates, a fact which Killian hates with a passion, but neither Emma and Killian are entirely prepared for the bit of news that their fifteen year old daughter drops on them over breakfast.





	Dads Against Daughters Dating

**Author's Note:**

> This little bit here has been my headcanon for a good few months and a part of me wishes that I had posted it during Pride Month, but I didn’t because I’m an idiot. I don’t have a lot of experience with “coming out” as I don’t fall under the LGBTQA umbrella, but I do think that Emma and Killian would most certainly not care if their kid was. I owe 5ekaytert887 a Wes fic and that is half way done, but my Beth muse got a hold of me and I really felt the need to go with it. I will work on the Wes fic tomorrow, I promise, and hopefully post it by tomorrow night. Anyway, thank you welpthisishappening for listening to me babble on and on about these children. I would be lost without you. Questions, concerns or comments? Feel free to chat with me over on Tumblr @ distant-rose.tumblr.com

Killian Jones loves his daughter with everything in his heart, but these days he misses when she was a little minnow in his arms who wanted nothing more than to splash around in the waves, fiddle around with his hook and giggle against his chest as they watched whales break the ocean’s surface while taking the Jolly on the joy ride.

Now, she’s a full-fledged teenage girl, no longer sweet and adorable, but clever, gorgeous and maddeningly charming with a penchant for tight fitted clothing and low neck lines that blatantly show off more cleavage than Killian is comfortable with. At fifteen years old, Beth Jones is both Killian’s pride and joy and his worst nightmare. There are days where Killian is pretty sure he’s going to suffer from aneurysm due to half of the outfits she puts on. Even worse is that he now catches men of all ages blatantly staring at his little girl. He nearly killed one of the dwarves who had been checking out at his daughter’s ass in the grocery store before his wife stopped him. It doesn’t help that she’s also aware of the staring and sometimes even encourages it with a flirty wink and an all-knowing smirk that gives him a sense of deja vu.

Now boys hound her at all hours of the day. Text messages, phone calls and little notes start cropping up all over the place. One boy who had been working as a bus boy at Granny’s even had the nerve to ask her out while they were eating together as a family. He could barely contain his look of disdain while Beth calmly told him she was unavailable and to ask her some other time. Harrison looks as horrified as Killian while Wes and Neddy tease their sister on how popular she is.

“Jeez, you cannot even eat without getting someone’s number,” Wes snickers. “And I thought I was the gorgeous one in the family.”

“Shut up!” Beth hisses under her breath. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

She says it doesn’t mean anything, but half the time she humors these idiots and lets them take her out for dinner, to the movies and even to the park. Killian doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to. He just wants it all to stop.

“She’s fifteen, Killian, she’s allowed to date. I don’t remember you giving Henry, Harrison or Wes this much grief when they started dating,” Emma comments after listening to him rant about Beth’s latest date at the movie theater with Dean Kelleher. Dean is two years older than Beth and his parents were some sort of minor nobles back in the Enchanted Forrest. Killian doesn’t care if the boy’s parents were Olympian gods, no one is worthy of his daughter.

“That’s different!” Killian exclaims. “She’s”- “Your little girl,” Emma interrupts him with a teasing smile.

“Your little pirate princess. Your little buttercup. Your minnow. Shall I go on?” she asks him, looking every bit amused.

“Swan…” Killian gives her an irritated look.

“Killian, like I said, she’s fifteen, not three. She’s going to grow up someday. Pirate princess is possibly gonna find a pirate king in the future and you can’t handle it.”

“Pirate queen, Swan, pirate queen. Princess is a bit demeaning and I know she’s going to get older and perhaps settle with someone someday but fifteen is not old enough to be looking for, how did you put it? A pirate king?”

“Easy there, sailor,” Emma says, placing a hand on his cheek and caressing his scar. “I think my mother would be offended about your thoughts on princesses but mainly I think you’re overblowing this. Going to the movies isn’t a marriage. It’s a first date. A casual first date and you’re just gonna have to suck it up and get used to it because unless you’re planning on throwing her into the brig on the Jolly, she’s gonna keep dating.”

Killian is silent as he mulls over her words in his mind, debating the pros and cons silently of locking his daughter away on his ship. Emma seems to have caught on to his line of thought because she gives him a light slap.

“That was not a suggestion. Do not lock up our daughter, Killian. She knows how to pick a lock. It was one of the first things we taught her. She will escape and she will hate you.”

Killian sighs and drops the argument with a shake of his head, deciding that his time is better spent watching the front window until his daughter comes home rather than a fruitless argument with his wife.

Luckily for Killian, Beth comes home at nine o’clock; two hours earlier than her scheduled curfew. He watches as Dean’s car rolls up to their house and the two get out of the car. The boy is chivalrous enough to walk his daughter to the front door, giving Beth a nervous smile. They talk for a few moments, Killian strains his ears to hear what they’re saying to no avail, before Dean bends forward. Alarms go off in Killian’s head. He knows this movement. This is a goodnight kiss. This son of wannabe nobles wants to kiss Beth, the apple of his eye and the most likely inheritor of his ship. (He’s pretty sure she would kill her brothers for it so he might as well put it in his will that the ship is hers outright and save them all from the bloodshed.)

However, all the alarms are silenced when Beth turns her head so that Dean’s lips land awkwardly on her cheek rather than her lips. Killian inwardly crows. His girl seems to realize the Kelleher boy is no match for her and has found him lacking. Beth gives Dean a waning smile and a stiff pat on the arm before walking into the house.

“Watched that, did you?” Beth asks as she places her jacket on the coat rack. It’s small leather number that is similar to Killian’s own except with a more feminine cut.

“Just making sure you got home alright, love,” he replies with a small smile.

She scoffs.

“Yeah, because the whole thirty yards to the front door is so dangerous. Dean wasn’t going to murder me on the steps, Dad. I was the one packing heat, not him. Knife in my boot,” Beth replies with a roll of her eyes that is so completely her mother.

“That’s my girl, always prepared. Did you have a good time?”

She gives a casual shrug.

"It was okay. Movie sucked, though Dean was more interested in other things than the actually movie, which I don't understand why guys think pawing someone on the first date is a good idea," she comments nonchalantly.

Killian's entire body goes stiff as he digests her words. A violent urge to pay Dean Kelleher a visit and discuss his dating behavior with his sword is a near compulsion. He tries to keep a calm demeanor as rage quells inside him.

"I will kill him," he says softly.

"No, you won't," Beth replies without a hint of fear as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. It strikes him that his daughter looks like a dark-haired replica of his wife in this moment. "I'm not a damsel. I'm not in distress. You can't go killing every single person who gets a little handsy with me. I can handle it. I handled it tonight. He got the picture when I kept kneeing him accidentally in the balls. Besides, I texted his mom about it. I'm sure whatever she has in store for him is worse than anything you could do. You taught me to take care of myself. Trust me. And trust your teachings."

"Beth, I'm your father. I'm always going to worry about you and going to hate it when you date boys who aren't even worthy enough to lick your boot," Killian replies, raking his hand through his increasingly silvery hair. It almost shocks him how fast he went gray, though at the same time with the sheer amount of insanity his kids put him through on a daily basis, it’s a miracle that Killian still has a full head of hair.

"Well, you shouldn't. I'm the best sword in Storybrooke. You said it yourself," she says with a smirk that's more Jones than Swan and brimming with overconfidence.

"No, I said you were the best sword of your generation, which really isn't a large pool to contend with, so don't get head of yourself. You still have a lot to learn, my young apprentice."

She laughs and suddenly she's no longer the strange flirtatious teenaged Beth that she's become but back to being his Beth, the small girl who is more interested in sword fighting and sailing the Jolly than boys.

"Well, we will just have to see, I may surprise you, old man, and even beat you," she replies, green eyes glittering.  

Killian chuckles. Beth’s got good form and far more talent than any of her brothers, much to Killian's disappointment (and David’s for that matter. Killian will never be over Beth singlehandedly disarming Neal who is nearly five years Beth’s senior.) Her issue is that she's both overconfident and impatient, things that Killian is sure will wane in time. She's got enough dedication and determination to keep with swordplay for as long as she is able.

"I would despair if you didn't, my minnow," he smiles. "But for now, how about some hot chocolate, hm?"

“Sounds delightful,” she replies with a small laugh.

Killian wraps an arm around her and places a kiss on the top of her head as they head towards the kitchen. They spend a good few hours talking; Killian regaling her about his old pirate days and Beth pretending she hasn’t heard them at least ten different times before. He’s missed their small chats, which have been growing less and less frequent as her gentleman callers become more and more common.

Much to his relief, over the next few weeks, Beth’s dates become few and far in between. Though Rapunzel’s daughter Claire becomes a frequent visitor in the Swan-Jones household. Claire Fitzhubert is a lovely dark-haired girl with kind eyes, a soft smile and skin like soft caramel. Their friendship is a bit of a mystery to Killian since Claire is incredibly shy and soft-spoken while Beth has always been boisterous and brimming with confidence. More often than not, Killian finds his daughter smirking as she whispers something in the poor girl’s ear, which causes her to go red and blush all the way to the roots of her hair. Killian wonders what will happen first – Claire’s gentle ways tempering his daughter’s wildness or Beth’s brazen mischievousness giving Claire a heart attack.

It’s a quiet Sunday morning when Beth drops a bit of news on their laps. Killian is drinking his coffee (with a splash of rum as usual) while reading the paper, half focused on the news section, half focused on his daughter chatting away about what she and Claire got up to yesterday. Emma is barely awake, nodding her head like a bobble-headed dog on a car dashboard as Beth speaks. Neddy is away, sleeping over at some friend from baseball camp’s house. Harrison and Wes are still in bed and Killian highly doubts either of them will be up before noon considering Wes was at a party last night and Harrison, in a fit of boldness, snuck his girlfriend in through the window. Killian has no illusions that they spent the night having extremely cautious and quiet sex in hopes of not alerting anyone to Nasira’s presence or their amorous activities. He’s going to have to pull the boy aside later and remind him that he knows the house like the back of his hand and Harrison’s not nearly as sneaky as he thinks. (If Killian’s feeling cheekier about it by the time he gets around to giving his eldest a talk, he might suggest Harrison take some lessons from Wes on how to be more sly. His second son is constantly up to something, Killian more than aware of it; he just lacks the evidence to prove it.)

“So, Claire is super cute and we’ve going to the movies tonight and if it all goes well, I might actually ask her to be my girlfriend,” Beth concludes, taking a big bite out of her toast.

Killian blinks for a moment in confusion, dropping his paper and meeting Emma’s eyes across the breakfast table. Emma, who had barely looked more alive than a zombie before, is now alert and meeting Killian’s gaze with the same stunned expression.

“Wait, what?” Emma asks, seeking clarification to make sure both she and Killian heard them right.

“You know, Claire…” Beth says slowly as if they were hard of hearing. “Tinier than me...Super cute...We’ve been hanging out for a good two weeks and I really like her and want her to be my girlfriend.”

“Huh,” Emma responds, not entirely articulate and still looking a bit shocked as she lifts her hot chocolate back up to her lips in an attempt to be casual, but entirely fails as some comes dribbling down the front of her white sleep-shirt.

“I thought you were dating that Tom Rolfe kid,” Killian comments, eyebrows still furrowed together. He doesn’t have an issue with Beth possibly liking girls. That’s not the thing that puzzles him, but rather how he missed the cues. In his mind’s eye, he begins reviewing all interactions that Beth has had with the girl in question. Now that he’s looking back on it, Beth’s actions which Killian had viewed as platonic teasing were most certainly flirting.

Beth scowls and rolls her eyes in near typical teenage fashion. This is Killian’s fourth go at raising a teenager and he finds this action to be part of the uniform. He finds himself less and less impressed with it.

“I went on, like, two dates with him. That doesn’t quantify as dating,” Beth explains as if she is explaining the nuances of dating to her nine-year-old brother rather than her near three-hundred-year-old father who has been married longer than she’s been alive. “Besides, he made me pay for my own stuff and told me that I talked too much and would benefit from listening more instead of speaking so I told him to lose my number. Besides, I’ve always liked Claire more than him.”

“I didn’t realize you liked girls,” Emma responds, essentially reading Killian’s mind. “I thought you were into boys since you went on all those dates.”

“I didn’t realize liking either was mutually exclusive,” Beth responds, raising both of her eyebrows at them.

“She’s got you there, Swan,” Killian mutters, picking his paper up with a sigh.

Silence falls between all of them. Killian reads the same paragraph over and over while Emma sips on her hot chocolate and Beth continues to munch on the leftover crust of her toast. Killian finds himself wanting to say something, but it’s almost as if a spell has been cast over him and he’s become tongue tied. It’s a curious feeling considering that he’s always been so verbose; using words as sword and shield to get out of sticky situations.

“Is it okay…that I like both boys and girls…? Like, it’s not gonna be a problem, right?” Beth asks in a rare show of unsureness, playing with a lock of hair. 

Beth has always been a confident girl, which both Emma and Killian had encouraged from a young age; neither of them wanted their children to be unsure and unable to stick up for themselves in a world that wasn’t always kind. It was a bit jarring to see she look so nervous and for these nerves to be over their opinion. Killian had thought at this point their opinion meant as little to her as the dirt behind her feet.

“Yes, it’s a problem,” Killian starts. “I thought I just had to beat the men away with a stick, but now I have to beat the ladies away as well. Beth, with as popular as you are, my arm is going to fall off from all of this by the end of the year and your mother is going to have to spoon feed me for the rest of my life.”

Emma leans over and plucks the newspaper out of Killian’s hand before rolling it up and giving him a loud whack on the head. He feigns pain, giving an exaggerated yelp of pain and making a show of rubbing his abused skull. Emma rolls her eyes.

“What your father means to say is that it’s okay. We love you whether that means you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or no one at all. You’re our daughter and we love you and will learn to love anyone who you deem appropriate to spend your life with,” Emma says, dropping the newspaper and taking Beth’s hand in hers.

“No, I think I’ve made it clear that I’m pretty much against Beth dating anyone because no man or woman is ever going to be a good enough consort for my favorite pirate queen,” Killian clarifies.

Emma picks up the newspaper and whacks him again.

“Your father is a bit of an idiot but we love him anyway,” Emma remarks dryly.

Killian gives his wife an offended look while Beth laughs, the corners of her eyes crinkling and her shoulders relaxing as she watches the banter between her parents.

“I do love that about him,” Beth smiles in agreement. “But for real, you’re cool with it?”

“Aye,” Killian replies, now completely serious. “It was never a problem to begin with.”


End file.
